About

Through cooking instruction, chef services, recipe development and meal planning, I support individuals with all food preferences in reaching their cooking and dietary goals.Amidst the conflicting definitions of what constitutes a nutritious diet, I stay out of the food fight, emphasize seasonal whole foods, and demonstrate that you don't have to sacrifice flavor or fun for good health. I combine my culinary training, experience and background in social work to develop just the right culinary engagement for my clients. I bridge the gap between the health care provider and the healthful plate, translating the nutritional counseling my clients receive into tasty tangible results.

As a faculty member in the Master of Science in Nutrition program at the National University of Natural Medicine, I develop and teach culinary classes to future nutritionists and naturopathic physicians.

About me

At the age of 21, I sliced, diced, whisked and juiced my way around the world on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, learning how diet can promote health and prevent disease. From a holistic healthcare center in Bristol, England, to an ashram in Trivandrum, India, to a raw foods retreat in Lagos, Portugal, I discovered I was most myself when I donned an apron and made my way to the heartbeat of the establishment - the kitchen. It was there that I found kinship through preparing and sharing beautiful fresh food.

Since then, I graduated from the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health & Culinary Arts, assisted chef/author Didi Emmons’ with her cookbook Entertaining for a Veggie Planet, earned my chops at the James Beard House, taught farm-to-table cooking classes, kitchen hopped again in Italy, Greece and France, cooked in restaurants, received a master's degree in social work and became enchanted with cooking unexpectedly divine fare outdoors on rock climbing trips. Twice I attended Eat Retreat, an invite-only workshop dedicated to good food and innovative thinking for leaders in the food community, and I participated in Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Health Immersion, where I studied food addiction and the Nutritarian lifestyle. As healthy cooking coach at Whole Foods Market, I taught customers and co-workers how to cook from scratch and earned my nickname “Lentil Lauren.”I continue to teach cooking to private clients and graduate students at the National University of Natural Medicine, develop recipes and content for businesses including barre3, and I am a 2017 Artist in Residence at Caldera.